Trees: Memories and Myths

Sacred tree at Kathgaria Temple, India. Photo: Shrifreedom From the http://www.cathedralgrove.se/ website

With roots anchored in the earth and branches reaching to the heavens, it's no wonder that a tree has become the symbol of balance, growth, and aspirations for many people.

Ancient tribes of America, India, Europe, and the Middle East-the Mayans, Aztecs, Assyrians, Egyptians, Celts and other Indo-Europeans, island nations in the Pacific, Scandinavians--all have seen holiness in trees.

A tree links earth and sky. Tribes of Native America, such as the Zuni, and Australia teach that magical beings-including the ancestors of humans-climbed up and down the sacred tree to travel between worlds. Our own "Middle Earth" was one of the places they either passed through or stopped at. In this sense, a tree represents the communication between all these places: the underworld, our own reality, and heaven.

The roots of trees are our link to the underworld. We can tap into that world when we sleep, bringing up images out of our subconscious to guide us. When the Iroquois linked five tribes together to form a strong nation, centuries ago, they chose a pine tree as their symbol. Its roots, they said, spread north, south, east, and west: the White Roots of Peace. (continued after ads and video)

But trees reach to the sky as well, and bring us wisdom from that realm. We aren't tall enough to touch the sky by ourselves. A tree not only stretches further, but it houses eagles and birds who soar into the heavens. Many of the people mentioned above believed that the sacred tree-the center of the world-held up the sky.

As for the trunk of the tree, the part that stands between earth and sky-well, that is what anchors our world. The trunk of a tree rises up from what is hidden in the ground, and the world spreads out around it.

A giant pole-a tree trunk-is used for the Sun Dance ceremonies of Plains Indians, and even after the ceremony, the pole cannot be taken down. That pole brought revelation into the world, and it remains holy. Even the cross of Christ can be seen this way! Its very existence makes the surrounding landscape-and us-sacred.

The Bodhi tree is where the Buddha received enlightenment. It's said he sat in front of the tree for a week afterwards, just watching and appreciating its beauty. The Bodhi tree was a sacred fig tree, and a tree grown from a shoot of the original it can still be seen today at Mahabodhi Temple in Bihar, India. (picture at right)

Guernica, the town that was bombed during the Spanish Civil War by Goering's nascent Luftwaffe, had a sacred oak tree that survived the bombing. It was 70 years old, but had grown from an acorn of the ancient oak that stood since the 16th century. That tree had become a symbol of the Basque people, because of the law-making assembly that met around it for centuries. The tree died a couple of years ago, and an acorn from it will generate a new tree.

Even in fantasy, trees carry a punch. The White Tree of Gondor in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings had great healing powers. It was carried to Gondor by Isildur, the ancestor of Aragorn, who slew Sauron. When the tree died, it was said a new tree would not be found till the Return of the King-which is what happened.

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